Fort Worth Woman Accused of Pepper-Spraying 3-Year-Old in the Face

A Fort Worth mother is sharing a terrifying encounter with a woman she says pepper-sprayed her 3-year-old son in the face.

Diamond Alvarez took photos of her son Leo shortly after it happened.

Fort Worth police have issued two warrants for the woman accused of doing it.

"I just tried to deescalate and avoid the situation and it was anything but that," Alvarez said.

Alvarez says she and Leo were on their way to the park in early April. They were on the sidewalk in front of a vacant home when Alvarez says a woman who used to live there pulled into the driveway to check the mail. 

When she backed out, Alvarez says the woman noticed them and started yelling obscenities.

Alvarez says the situation escalated fast.

"My first thought was I didn't want that woman near me," she said.

With her son in her arms, Alvarez says the woman threw a soda can, hitting her in the back.

Then she says the woman drove towards Leo several times, striking his four-wheeler.

"I thought she was going to kill my son. I really thought she was going to run over him," Alvarez said.

But that wasn't the end.

Alvarez says the woman whipped out a can of pepper spray and sprayed both of them in the face.

"It wasn't that she was trying to continue to mace me but it was very intentional what she did to my 3-year-old child, my baby," Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the woman drove off before police arrived.

She filed a police report and is hopeful the suspect, identified at 56-year-old Maria Russell, is caught soon.

Russell's charges include assault and causing intentional bodily injury to a child.

"I want her to be held accountable for what she did," Alvarez said.